One Exception
by LeeJean7
Summary: What if there had been one person who understood? Each of them were alone, but what if they didn't have to be? Can they open up and let someone into their lives, or will it just lead to more hurt? A short story placing them both in the same world.
1. Chapter 1

First Meeting

The metal casing holding the window panes was covered in frost, and even as Elsa, turned to face the window and watch, frost spread across the glass, almost as fast as if she had put it there. But this she knew wasn't her. She bunched her hands together and walked to the window. There was only one other person she knew of with power over ice and snow.

"Jack Frost," she whispered, looking at the window. "The only one in the whole world with the same curse as me. Except for him it is no curse. Are you out there now, Jack Frost?" As she said the last line her voice lifted slightly, as if to actually call outside. And strangely enough she got an answer.

Jack had heard his name. He was sure of it. His seat above the window gave him a nice view, so he had stopped for a second. Then he had heard someone below him say his name. Maybe. But he had to see. He swung down and landed crouched on the window sill, looking into the room, and right at the girl looking out at him. No, she couldn't be looking at him, no one had seen him ever, in about 80 years. Yet this girl jumped back like she had just seen someone jump off her roof, and her eyes fixed on him. She didn't say anything for a minute, and neither did he. Then Elsa took a deep breath and spoke hesitantly "Jack Frost?"

"You...know my name. Can you see me?"

"Of course," her brow furrowed like he had asked a silly question, but for him it was the most important answer he had ever gotten, and the only answer. "So you are him, Jack Frost!" She smiled and her face lit up. The smile shook Jack out of his shock and made his face light up in an answering smile, bright and full of excitement.

"Yep, the one and only Jack Frost, at your service, Princess." He did a bow and she laughed at the title.

"I'm Elsa."

"Princess Elsa." He announced it in a falsely regal tone, as though he spent his whole life making fun of heralds.

"Please, just call me Elsa."

"Well, you may call me Jack." He leaned on his staff and remembered who she was. He had seen her many times, she was the girl who had powers similar to his own. She was definitely not invisible, but she was always in this room, on her own, he had seen her here for years.

"I just knew you were real, you had to be." Elsa caught herself just before she gave herself away. Maybe they could just talk and she could find something in what he said that would help her control her curse.

"I am real, just very few people ever notice me."

"That's crazy." She shook her head and stepped closer to the window. They continued talking, starting with something simple like the weather, and moving on to anything that caught their interest. Neither talked much with other people and both just enjoyed the company. Elsa leaned against the window, forgetting in their talking to watch where her hands were. Her gloves weren't always keeping the power in anymore and as she leaned against the window they rested on the sill. Nothing happened for a long time as they talked, then there came a knock on her door and she jumped, spinning around to see who it was. As she spun she caught the glove on her left hand and it slipped off, leaving her hand free as it touched the windowpane behind her and a thick frost covered the window completely. She turned back and quickly snatched up her glove from the floor, then realized that Jack must have seen her power. The window was so thickly covered that she couldn't see through it. There was only a second to feel the bitter disappointment, of knowing that he must have seen her curse and left. He could control his power, why would he want to be around someone with the same power who couldn't control it? The knock came again and Elsa turned from the window to greet her parents. Almost an hour later, after her supper Elsa took the candle sitting on her table and held it to the window. It was another hour before the window was cleared, but by then she knew for certain that Jack was gone. In fact, Jack had left after a few minutes of hearing her talking with her parents. He called to the wind and travelled down to the town, then alternated between feeling happy beyond belief that someone had finally seen him, and sad that she had seemed to forget him within a few seconds of another person coming in.


	2. Chapter 2

Coming in

"Jack, you came back."

"What, you thought I wouldn't?"

"Of course, you saw my curse."

"Your curse? You mean your power?"

"It's a curse. I can't control it, even these gloves, they don't help. I have to control it. I could hurt someone, again."

"No, I don't believe that you could hurt anyone, Elsa."

"I would never mean to! But I can't control it." He suddenly started to look around the window frame. "What are you looking for?"

"The latch. Can you open it?" Elsa backed up, shaking her head.

"No! You can't come in!"

"Why not? I won't hurt you, I promise." She still shook her head.

"It isn't me I'm worried about getting hurt."

"Then let me in, I can help you."

"No, I can't let you get hurt too. And besides, the window doesn't open."

"All windows open, some just take a little more effort." He touched his staff to the window, and it frosted over.

"That won't work. It was specially made to stay strong against my power."

"Of course it will work. Watch." Then he swung his staff against the window.

"No Jack! Don't!" Elsa backed up and held out her hand, but a blast of power shot out of it and toward the window and Jack. She gasped and pulled back her hand, holding it to her. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! See what I mean?"

"Ha, ha, hey, don't worry about it." The smile he gave her was full of warmth, and fun. "Now, let's try something else." He looked over his shoulder, then tapped one side of the frame with his staff. Elsa, curious in spite of herself at this person with powers so similar to her own, but who didn't have to hide stepped forward to see what he did. So when he slid to the side and a blast of wind, probably with his help, pushed open the window, she was caught in the blast and spun around.

"Ah!"

"Whoops, sorry about that, are you okay?" Jack asked, coming back around the corner and into the room, and swinging the window shut behind him. Caught off guard Elsa smiled, back at him.

"Yeah." Then she realized where he was, in her room. She quickly dropped the smile and turned away. "No, you shouldn't have done that. You should leave, now."

"Elsa..." He had stepped closer without her even realising and now he put his hand on her shoulder. Elsa gasped and pulled away, running to the far side of the room and standing against the door.

"No! Don't touch me! You could get hurt."

"Elsa, it's okay. You can't hurt me." Jack stepped forward and held out his hand as she drew back. "Here, trust me."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." Slowly she reached out her hand, and almost touched him, then she hesitated, and on the other side of the door behind her she heard a knock, and her father's voice.

"Elsa? Is everything okay? Can we come in?" She spun around and faced the door, then looked back at Jack.

"Umm." But her parents didn't wait for an answer, they pushed open the door as she moved into the center of the room and saw Jack step out of the way, but by no means hide. _What was he doing? _At the last second he seemed to realise that it would be bad if her parents saw him in her room.

_Oh, _Jack thought,_ if Elsa can see me, what if her parents can too? And while that would be nice to be seen...I'm not sure she would appreciate it._ Jack stepped to the side, but as he did, the door swung open and her parents came in, and he was just to the side of the room.

"Elsa. Is anything wrong?"

"No, why?"

"Oh darling...we heard you yell, from down the hall." Her father stepped forward, but she pulled back.

"No, don't touch me! I don't want to hurt you." They didn't touch her, they never did anymore.

"Honey, your mother and I are just trying to help."

"I know, I have to learn to control it, not to feel it, to show that it doesn't exist, and it will be like it doesn't."

"Exactly." Her father stepped away for a second and turned towards the window, he looked at it for a moment, then walked around the room. Jack backed up, away from him, and the King passed right beside him. Elsa looked at her father in shock, then quickly at Jack. His head was down and she recognized the look of complete sadness on his face. Both of them were so absorbed that they didn't see the Queen walk after the King, but veer off to the shelf behind Jack. By the time Elsa noticed, it was too late, and Jack didn't even have time to move as her mother headed to the shelf to straighten an ornament, right through Jack, like he wasn't even there. He gasped and so did Elsa, he backed up as her parents came back toward her.

"Elsa, what's wrong?" She was in shock, they hadn't seen, heard, or felt Jack, her mother had walked right through him, but she could see him, hear him, she had felt him touch her.

"Y-you...nothing." She shook her head, and clutched her hands close to her chest again.

"If you're sure, Elsa..."

"I'm sure. I'm fine. I'll keep working on controlling it."

"Good. We'll see you later dear." They left and Elsa spun to face Jack.


	3. Chapter 3

Breaking Out

"Why didn't they see you or hear you? My mother walked through you! And I felt it, you touched my shoulder. How come I know you're here but they didn't?" But this time the only answer he gave was a shrug of the shoulders. "Jack? Please, please talk to me. I'm not crazy, I know you're here! I do!" She stretched out her hand towards him. "Please..." He put his hand on the window sill and glanced back over his shoulder.

""I don't know why Elsa, you're the only one whose ever seen me. No one else even knows I exist."

"But of course they do! I live in here and I've heard of you. Jack Frost, the one who makes the pictures on the windows, the one who brings a cold breeze to nip at your nose in late autumn, or early spring, the one who laces the trees with such pretty delicate crystals..." She looked down at her outstretched hand and closed it into a fist, "the only one in the world with a curse like mine, except for you it isn't a curse."

"Oh Elsa, no, for me, I have a different curse. This is what brings me joy, the only thing that does often. In a life all alone, my power is all I have. But you are alone too, I've seen you here before, in this window, every year, always alone."

"But this curse is what keeps me alone." She clenched her fist again and Jack left the window.

"Elsa, take my hand. It doesn't have to be a curse for you. Maybe you can't control it right now, but you can still have some fun."

"Are you sure? What if I freeze you or something?" He smiled again, that smile that completely lit up his face.

"I already told you, you can't hurt me with your power, I have the same power." He held out his hand again and she looked into his eyes, and slowly reached out her hand to touch his. Nothing traveled through the glove.

"See? I told you it wouldn't harm me." Then he turned towards the window with her hand still grasped in his. "Come on." Elsa hung back.

"Where are we going?" He hooked his staff around the window and pulled it open. Looking back at hr with a smile. "Outside? But what if I hurt someone?"

"Trust me, you won't." They stepped up on the ledge and Elsa looked down, then regretted it, it was one thing to be safely looking out the window, and another to be outside it.

"Um, how will we get down? Wait, how did you get up here?" He smiled again and made a little wave with his staff.

"Just hang on tight and don't let go. Okay?"

"Okay..." Suddenly the wind picked up and swept around her and Jack. She gasped and looked over at him as he laughed, holding his staff out almost as a balance. "Flying! You can fly? Look how high we are!"

"Isn't it fun?" In minutes they were away from the castle and the town, over the bay and towards the mountains that had always seemed so small and faraway. Once they couldn't see the palace anymore, Jack tilted them downward. "Get ready to land!" They touched the ground and ran a few steps to keep their balance.

"Ah ha ha! You can fly! I flew! That was amazing!"

"You know what else is amazing Elsa?" She was looking around at the view, but turned back to face him as he spoke. "Snowballs!" And one landed right in her face.

"Ah!" She wiped the snow off her face and ducked the next one he threw, then reached down and packed one of her own, aiming it at his head, but he ducked just in time.

"Hahaha! So you do know how to have fun!" He stopped ducking for a second to laugh and got a snowball right in the face. Now Elsa laughed and ducked as she ran.

"Hey, no fair!" She laughed as she felt the wind pick up again and he zoomed past her to pelt her with more snowballs. He circled back and held out his hand again, and this time she grabbed on without hesitation, laughing as they flew further up into the sky. Then the light caught her eye.

"Oh no! It's almost suppertime! I can't believe we spent three hours out here! If I'm not there when supper is dropped off they'll call my parents in! And the window is open!"

"No problem, you'll be back in no time Elsa, hang on tight!" The wind blew even faster and harder now, bring with it a gust of snow. Soon they were back on the window ledge and stepping into her room.

"That was fun, Jack. Thank you."

"No, thank you, Elsa. I'll see you soon." Then he hopped out the window and pulled it shut.

_Wait...I thought this was a one-time thing? But maybe...maybe he can help me learn to control it._ She stood looking out the window and watched him fly off. A knock sounded at the door and she called out quietly without looking away from the window.

"Come in." She heard the maid come in and set out her supper, but she didn't turn around. There were only a few maids in the palace who knew about her curse. It would be one of them, and they were instructed to leave her alone. Instead she kept looking out the window long after Jack had disappeared into the distance. By the time she moved the maid was long gone, and her supper was probably cold, but she had reached a decision. Until she knew that Jack couldn't help her control her curse she could see him, but if he couldn't help her at all, then she would have to stop. She had to control it.


End file.
